On the morning of July 15, 1864, Engine #171 left Jersey City headed for Elmira. The locomotive was pulling a tender and eighteen boxcars fitted with benches. The cargo consisted of 833 Confederate prisoners and 125 Union guards. Among the prisoners were 108 soldiers of the 51st North Carolina. All but three of the Tarheels had been captured at Cold Harbor on June 1.
The prisoner train was an “extra,” an unscheduled run. It was preceded by a scheduled train, West #23, which displayed signal flags indicating that an extra was following. The flags notified dispatchers along the route to keep the tracks clear for the following train. Because Engine #171 was delayed twice, it was trailing West #23 by four hours.
Around 2:30 in the afternoon, a coal train, bound for Jersey City, approached Lackawaxen Junction along a spur track. The conductor dismounted the train and asked the telegraph operator if the track was clear. The operator, Douglas “Duff” Kent, told the conductor it was safe to proceed. West #23 had passed from the east through Lackawaxen earlier that morning. Kent either did not notice the warning flags on the locomotive, or he had forgotten about them. No matter the reason for Kent’s lapse, he had set in motion a great tragedy. The coal train entered the main line heading east; Engine #171 was coming westward on the same track at twenty-five miles per hour.
About a mile and a half west of Shohola, the coal train rounded a sharp curve in an area known as King and Fuller’s Cut. The prisoner train entered the cut from the opposite direction at the same time. By the time the locomotive crews sighted each other, the trains were less than 100 yards apart.
The two engines collided with a mighty crash. The front of the coal train’s engine pushed under Engine #171, and both locomotives rose momentarily into the air before dropping back onto the tracks. The tender of the prisoner train tipped forward and dumped its wood into the engine, burying the engineer and fireman. The tender then crashed down on top of the first passenger car, crushing the car beneath it and killing 36 of the 37 prisoners in that car. Guards stationed on the tops of the cars and on the platforms between the cars were killed instantly.
The first three cars were totally destroyed, and the next eight were severely damaged. Bodies lay everywhere. The dead were crushed by the impact and impaled by pieces of debris. The injured screamed and moaned.
The survivors were organized into a rescue party and began retrieving the dead and injured from the wreckage. Word was sent to Shohola, and soon the local people turned out to help. A relief train arrived that night with three doctors to tend the injured and a work crew to clear the wreckage from the track.
The road was cleared that night. The injured were transported to Shohola and treated there. A pit was dug near the scene of the accident, between the track and the river. Each Union soldier was placed in a hastily constructed pine box. The Confederate dead were placed in wooden boxes in groups of four. Workmen buried the makeshift coffins in the pit.
The next day the survivors, except for seven that were critically injured, were transported to Elmira. An exact count and identification of the dead was impossible because of the mutilated condition of the corpses. The official tally was sixty-five killed: seventeen guards and forty-eight prisoners. Ninety-three prisoners were injured and five prisoners escaped during the confusion.
An investigation into the accident placed the blame for the crash on Duff Kent, the telegraph operator. A correspondent for the New York Tribune wrote that Kent was “spoken of as a drunken fellow by all who have mentioned him to us. It was said he was intoxicated the night before the accident, and it was nothing unusual for him to be in that condition when assuming his post of duty.” Kent left town the next day and was never heard from again.
Fourteen of the 51st North Carolina’s soldiers died in the train wreck. Three more died within the next few days from injuries sustained in the crash. In addition to the seventeen dead, seventeen others were injured.
In 1911, the bodies were exhumed from the gravesite near Shohola and buried in a mass grave at Woodlawn National Cemetery at Elmira. A monument was erected on the site. A plaque on the north side of the monument lists the names of the Union guards who died in the wreck. The monument’s south face has a plaque with the names of the Confederate victims.
The plaque incorrectly lists S. W. Lee as a soldier in Company K, 8th North Carolina. Private Sir William Lee served in Company K, 51st Regiment. The plaque also includes the name of D. W. Pope and does not list William Nunnery. Doctor W. Pope served as a private in Company I, 51st Regiment. He was not on the train that crashed at Elmira. Private William Nunnery also served in Company I. Prison records state that Nunnery was “supposed to have been killed en route to Elmira.”
Killed in the Wreck
Joseph Adams, Jesse Baker, James Bessent, Travis Bryant, John Carroll, John Davis, Nathan Deaver, James Hardison, Sir Lee, Malcolm McCorquedale, Duncan Monroe, William Nunnery, Thomas Strickland, Samuel Watson
Died of Injuries
Daniel Graham (compound fracture of tibia and fibula; foot amputated), David Lanier (died of gangrene), William Tyner (died of contusion)
Injured
William Ellis, George Fisher, William Glover, James Jackson, John Jackson (right leg broken), David D. Jones, William Maner, Archibald McDonald (injured leg), Dugald McIntyre, William Norris, James Pope, James Simmons (left leg broken), Peter Smith, Abram Taylor (amputee), Daniel Tew (fractured breastbone, broke three ribs, and dislocated shoulder), John R. Tew (left leg broken and head mashed), James Warren (severely injured)
Uninjured
Aldred Barnes, Joseph Blanton, James Boone, Sampson Boone, Daniel Bostick, Amon Branch, Caswell Britt, John Brooks, James Brown, Joshua Carver, Isham Cribb, Judson Croom, Leroy Daniels, Ervin Davis, Robert Deese, James Douglas, James Fields, Malcolm Galbreath, George Garris, James Gowan, John Guy, Haynes Hall, William Harrell, Ward Ikener, John Israel, Delancy Jernigan, Daniel Jolly, David J. Jones, Milton Kerr, William Kerr, David Lee, William Lee, Peter Livingston, Daniel Long, Owen Malpass, Robert Martin, Archibald McDonald, Franklin McDonald, Weston McLean, Daniel McMillan, John Mercer, Saul Mercer, William Merritt, Robert Miller, Saunders Millican, Charles Moore, James Moore, Richard Moore, John Nobles, Everett Parker, John Peterson, Isham Pitman, Henry Prevatt, George Register, Evander Rozier, James Shepherd, Malcolm Simmons, William Sparkman, David Taylor, William Teachey, Alexander Tew, Jackson Tew, James Tew, Lemick Tew, John E. Thompson, David Turner, Edward Turner, Chester Vann, Braddock Whaley, Reddin Wilcox, Giles Williams, Jasper Williamson, Richard Williford, William Wood
Thirty-five uninjured survivors of the wreck would die from disease before the war ended.
Sources
Rick Long, “July 15, 1864 Great Shohola Train Wreck,” July 15, 2017. Retrieved from “Today In History” blog (https://todayinhistory.blog/)
“Railway Accident,” Daily Age 16 Jul. 1864
“Terrible Collision on the Erie Railroad,” Daily Ohio Statesman 21 Jul. 1864
“A Fearful Catastrophe,” Philadelphia Inquirer 16 Jul 1864
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